WANTED: NURSES, DOCTORS

Provincial Health Office wants to improve nursepatient ratio in provincial hospitals It also needs more medical personnel as it plans to expand medical programs next year Department of Health urged not to lure nurses away from provincial hospital with bigger salary

The Provincial Health Office (PHO) will hire more than 900 nurses to improve the nurse-patient ration in Province-operated hospitals.

It will also doctors and other medical personnel after baring plans to expand some of its health programs, said Dr. Rene Catan, PHO head.

“The Province is in dire need of nurses, doctors, medical technologists and pharmacists,” Catan told reporters yesterday.

He said the nurses will be assigned in Balamban, Carcar, Bogo City and Danao City.

The PHO is also set to buy ad- ditional medical equipment to improve facilities, he said.

The PHO currently has almost 2,000 employees.

Catan said that the ideal number of complementary personnel is 1,500 employees.

The Philippine Nurses Association earlier revealed that in the Balamban District Hospital, where a nurse was recently allegedly harassed by a patient, two nurses serve 45 patients per shift.

But Catan lamented most nurses opt to seek employment in private hospitals or work for the Department of Health (DOH), which offers a bigger salary.

Catan said that their nurses get P25,000 a month, while the DOH pays its nurses P33,000.

Catan urged the DOH to help them convince nurses to remain at or work for the PHO, adding that the Province plans to offer the same rate as the DOH.

“We will be formalizing our request to the DOH that for nurses that we have already trained to not attract them. If they want to get nurses, they have to get it on their own way,” Catan added.